Obama administration focuses on companies, not raids

By Dirk Perrefort, Staff Writer

Published 12:54 am, Tuesday, September 1, 2009

DANBURY -- While economic woes and the health care debate have put immigration reform on the back burner in Washington these days, President Barack Obama said recently that a draft of new immigration legislation could be prepared by year's end.

"I would anticipate that before the year is out we will have draft legislation, along with sponsors potentially in the House and Senate who are ready to move forward on this, and when we come back next year, that we should be in a position to start acting," he said.

Obama added that while "we have a broken immigration system," lawmakers in the country's Capitol already have a lot on their plates with financial regulatory reform and health care.

Mayor Mark Boughton acknowledged that immigrant reform has stalled on the federal level, but the new administration has taken some action on enforcement.

While he has continued a program that allows local law enforcement agencies to partner with federal immigration officials, the program was retooled by the new administration to have a more defined focus. Danbury recently received approval to take part in the partnership.

"There has been a change in vision by this administration," Boughton said.

He added that rather than having enforcement activities centered on large-scale raids to pick up illegal immigrants, the administration has instead decided to focus on the companies that hire them.

While Boughton said he doesn't know of any local companies that have been targeted as part of the new effort, agents with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency have audited more than 1,000 companies so far this year. That's up from about 50 companies audited by federal immigration agents last year.

"There has to be a demonstration of enforcement before people can talk about reform," he said.

Obama, during the press conference Monday, said immigration reform is not going to come easily.

"There are going to be demagogues out there who try to suggest that any form of pathway for legalization for those who are already in the United States is unacceptable," he said.

The president added, however, that ultimately, he believes the American people want fairness.

"And we can create a system in which you have strong border security, we have an orderly process for people to come in, but we're also giving an opportunity for those who are already in the United States to be able to achieve a pathway to citizenship so that they don't have to live in the shadows, and their children and their grandchildren can have a full participation in the United States. So I'm confident we can get it done."